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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23133631">What's in a Name?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/praypals/pseuds/praypals'>praypals</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Soulmate AUs [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:40:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,153</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23133631</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/praypals/pseuds/praypals</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where people have the first name of their soulmate written on their back, Ryan never really worried very much about finding his soulmate. But when he found someone who he was almost positive was the right person, they didn't seem to have his name in return.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jeremy Dooley/Ryan Haywood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Soulmate AUs [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662844</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>94</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What's in a Name?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is the first part of a series of soulmate AUs I'm planning on writing! If you have any ships or AUs that you'd like to see, just let me know and I'll see what I can do :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ryan Haywood didn’t particularly care about finding his soulmate. Sure, he figured it would be nice, however it was never a top priority. It was true that he would occasionally feel twinges of jealousy as he witnessed all his friends around him being with their soulmate and seemingly being on their way to their own happily-ever-after, but it didn’t ever particularly bother him. In fact, he was never really bothered at all by the fact that he hadn’t found his soulmate yet.</p><p>Until, that is, he met Jeremy Dooley.</p><p>Jeremy was exactly what Ryan wanted in a soulmate. He was friendly and attractive, and had an amazing sense of humor. Like Ryan, Jeremy also loved video games and was rather good at them. The two had bonded almost immediately, and Ryan had felt himself start falling for Jeremy very quickly. On top of all of that, Jeremy had the right name.</p><p>Almost everyone had a name written into their lower back like a tattoo. No one is born with it, but it fades in slowly during the teen years. Many teenagers check their back every day, waiting for the day that it’s finally dark enough to be legible. Ryan was never one of those teenagers that checked very often, he had just noticed it one day as he stepped out of the shower.</p><p>The name was Jeremy, of course. It had shocked Ryan at first because, like most young boys, he had expected the name of a female. He spent a long time assuming it was perhaps just a platonic soulmate, and even dated several girls before finally just deciding he didn’t really care about romantic relationships.</p><p>That all changed after meeting Jeremy. When they first were introduced to each other, Ryan’s mind automatically told him he may have just found his platonic soulmate. As his feelings grew stronger toward Jeremy, however, he realized that if it was just platonic then he shouldn’t have such romantic feelings for him.</p><p>All these thoughts were running wildly through Ryan’s head as he was sitting next to Jeremy at home, playing FPS games and jokingly pretending that they actually were the characters in the games. It was one of their favorite things to do when they were bored, and Ryan particularly liked it in a somewhat foolish way because it gave him a chance to imagine all the different alternate universes in which Jeremy could reciprocate his feelings.</p><p>It was at this time that Ryan suddenly decided to finally ask Jeremy the question,</p><p>“Have you met your soulmate?”</p><p>Jeremy glanced at Ryan and raised his eyebrows.</p><p>“Ryan, if I had found my soulmate already, do you really think I would be at your house playing video games almost every night?” he asked, a teasing tone in his voice.</p><p>“Oh, right. Sorry, I’m being dumb,” Ryan responded, trying to sound like he definitely wasn’t upset at all by Jeremy’s answer, then added, “What’s your soulmate’s name, anyway?”</p><p>“Nunya,” Jeremy said, grinning.</p><p>“Nunya?” Ryan replied in confusion.</p><p>“Yeah, nunya damn business,” Jeremy joked, then his face went somewhat serious and he paused the game.</p><p>Ryan frowned and turned to look at Jeremy, who had a concerned expression on his face.</p><p>“Why did you pause it?” Ryan asked.</p><p>“Are you alright? You seem distracted, and you would usually never fall for a joke as dumb and obvious as that,” Jeremy said, then placed a comforting hand on Ryan’s shoulder.</p><p>Ryan felt his chest seize. He had never wanted to kiss Jeremy more than right then, but after finding out for sure that the younger man definitely didn’t have his name on his back, Ryan almost felt like crying. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was one of the cases where the person was his soulmate but he wasn’t theirs, or if Jeremy just wasn’t actually his soulmate at all. Both thoughts made Ryan queasy, and he hated the universe for putting him through this.</p><p>“Ryan?” Jeremy said cautiously.</p><p>His face was full of genuine worry, and it made Ryan’s chest ache. It physically hurt Ryan to see Jeremy like this, and he wanted it to stop, so he forced an almost too cheerful smile onto his face and nodded like nothing was wrong.</p><p>“Yeah, I’m fine. Just zoned out for a moment, it’s no big deal,” he forced himself to say.</p><p>Jeremy didn’t budge. Instead, he frowned deeper. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder. Both men jumped, but Jeremy almost leaped into Ryan’s arms, causing Ryan to laugh a bit.</p><p>“Are you scared of thunder, Lil J?” Ryan joked, grinning.</p><p>“Shut up,” Jeremy muttered, “it just surprised me. And don’t you dare think you’re getting off that easily! I will find out what’s bothering you if it’s the last thing I do.”</p><p>Jeremy leaned toward Ryan to shove him playfully on the shoulder, and Ryan found himself subconsciously also leaning forward as the thought ran through his mind about how nice it would be to kiss the younger man. He caught himself quickly, though, and felt silently relieved as it seemed that Jeremy hadn’t noticed.</p><p>The thunder clapped again and the two men became aware of the rain pounding on the roof and windows of the house. Jeremy groaned and fell backwards onto the couch, throwing his legs over Ryan’s knees and placing his hands behind his head. Ryan raised his eyebrows and waited for a few moments to see if Jeremy would speak, as it looked like he had something he wanted to say, but the younger man stayed silent so Ryan spoke instead.</p><p>“You wanna stay here for the night? It’s raining pretty hard out there,” he suggested.</p><p>Jeremy swung his legs off of Ryan and jumped back into a sitting position.</p><p>“Really? Oh, thanks man, you’re a lifesaver. I really don’t give a shit about my car but I still don’t really want to drive in weather like that,” he responded with a shit-eating grin on his face..</p><p>Ryan rolled his eyes and smiled. This wasn’t the first time it had happened; in fact, Jeremy had stayed over at Ryan’s house enough times that he had graduated from sleeping on the couch to sleeping next to Ryan on his bed. It had only happened because Jeremy had complained about how uncomfortable it was to sleep on the couch and Ryan was too tall to sleep on it instead, but neither man seemed to mind sleeping next to the other.</p><p>After several more hours of playing video games, the two men finally retired back to Ryan’s room and relaxed onto the bed, leaning on their sides, facing each other, and chatting easily.</p><p>“Hey, Jeremy?” Ryan suddenly asked in the middle of their conversation.</p><p>“Yeah?” Jeremy responded, tilting his head curiously.</p><p>“Why don’t you just move in? You spend more time here than you do at your own home anyway,” Ryan suggested slightly nervously.</p><p>“I mean, it’s not a bad idea,” Jeremy replied, frowning, “but I’m kinda waiting to meet my soulmate, y’know? I feel like it would be weird if I happened to meet my soulmate while I was living with some random guy.”</p><p>“I’m not ‘some random guy’, though, I’m your best friend,” Ryan argued, sounding upset.</p><p>“Well, I know, but you get what I mean, right?” Jeremy defended.</p><p>Ryan frowned and didn’t answer, then turned to face away from Jeremy. Jeremy sighed and gently tugged on Ryan’s shoulder, trying to get him to turn back around.</p><p>“C’mon, Ryan, you know I didn’t mean it like that. You’re obviously my closest friend and I couldn’t live without you, but at a point you’re still just my friend, you know?” Jeremy tried to defend again.</p><p>“Yeah, I know what you meant,” Ryan mumbled. “If I’m your closest friend, though, why won’t you show me the name on your back or even just tell me what it is?”</p><p>Jeremy fell silent and his hand dropped off of Ryan’s shoulder. Ryan felt him turn to face away and frowned, wondering why Jeremy was so sensitive about it. He turned back toward Jeremy and wrapped his arms around him, hugging him tightly from behind.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he murmured into Jeremy’s ear, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”</p><p>He felt Jeremy sigh deeply.</p><p>“It’s not that, I just…” he sighed again, then continued, “Have you ever felt like you didn’t really want to meet your soulmate?”</p><p>He wiggled back around and Ryan’s breath caught as he immediately became hyperaware of how close their faces were.</p><p>“Er, no, not really. Why?” Ryan mumbled, trying to keep his face from flushing.</p><p>“Sometimes I just, y’know, I wish soulmates didn’t really exist. I don’t like the idea of supposedly just having a specific person that you’re destined to be with, or whatever soulmates really are. And I’m almost positive I have feelings for someone else, but having a different soulmate is like the universe telling me that I should just be with that person, instead of the person that I want because they make me happier than anything.” Jeremy explained quietly.</p><p>“You… Have feelings for someone else?” Ryan repeated.</p><p>Jeremy nodded in confirmation and Ryan felt his heart begin beating faster in his chest.</p><p>“Well,” Ryan continued, “what’s in a name, anyway? You should be with the person you know you’ll be happy with.”</p><p>“You think so?” Jeremy murmured.</p><p>Ryan nodded. The two men shared a smile and Ryan suddenly noticed Jeremy was blushing. Deciding it was now or never, Ryan slowly leaned closer, and his heart leapt as he noticed Jeremy doing the same. Their lips met and for a moment Ryan felt happier than he ever had in his life.</p><p>Then, Jeremy abruptly pulled away.</p><p>“Shit,” he mumbled, quickly sitting up and starting to get off the bed.</p><p>“Wait,” Ryan said in confusion, catching his wrist to stop him.</p><p>“What if I <em>do</em> meet my soulmate, Ryan?” Jeremy sighed, “And what if I hurt them by already being in a relationship?”</p><p>“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push you into it like that. I should’ve thought about it more before kissing you. Please don’t go,” Ryan begged.</p><p>Jeremy hesitated before nodding and sitting back down silently.</p><p>“I’ll get you something to sleep in,” Ryan said quietly, then stood up and walked toward his dresser to pull some clothes out.</p><p>As he handed Jeremy a shirt to change into he suddenly thought about how, even though Jeremy had spent the night several times before, Ryan had never seen him shirtless before.</p><p>“Er, I’ll leave while you change,” Ryan mumbled awkwardly.</p><p>“It’s fine, you don’t have to,” Jeremy replied with a shrug.</p><p>Ryan nodded and sat back down on the bed. He tried to look away as Jeremy began to pull his shirt off, but his curiosity betrayed him and he stole a glance at the name on Jeremy’s back. Unable to stop himself, Ryan started laughing. Jeremy spun around quickly.</p><p>“What?” he demanded.</p><p>“Nothing, it’s just,” Ryan chuckled, “the name on your back.”</p><p>Jeremy swore and quickly pulled the fresh shirt on.</p><p>“You saw it? What’s so funny about it?” he said, frowning.</p><p>A giggle escaped from Ryan before he managed to speak again.</p><p>“I just can’t believe I never thought about it before. The name, I mean. Of course I have your name on my back, but I never even considered that the name on your back might be what it is.”</p><p>“What do you mean?” Jeremy pressed in confusion.</p><p>“Your soulmate’s name. James. That’s <em>my</em> name. James Ryan Haywood. I grew up being called Ryan and since then I’ve always gone by that, so it just never occurred to me that my soulmate would have ‘James’ on their back instead of ‘Ryan’. I can’t believe I didn’t think about that,” Ryan explained, feeling giddy.</p><p>Jeremy’s eyes widened as he understood what Ryan was getting at.</p><p>“So you’re saying…” he began.</p><p>“I think we’re soulmates,” Ryan finished.</p><p>“Holy shit,” Jeremy said breathlessly, then started grinning, “I can’t believe I was afraid my soulmate would be upset that I was dating my soulmate.”</p><p>Ryan laughed happily and rushed forward to hug Jeremy tightly. He then pressed a kiss to the latter’s forehead before Jeremy pulled his face down to kiss him on the lips. They were both smiling gleefully as they fully comprehended the fact that they actually were each other’s soulmates.</p><p>For such a long time, Ryan hadn’t cared about romance or finding his soulmate, and he would have been satisfied with just a platonic relationship. But now that he knew the one man he had started to have feelings for was actually his soulmate, it seemed difficult to ever imagine a world where they weren’t together. He had never expected to be in love like this, but after finding out what it feels like he never wanted to go back.</p>
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